cliff, and this gives, frankly, this gives the white house and this gives the obama administration much more bargaining leverage. >> well, the former treasury secretary has one thing to say but many other voices are a virtual kcacophony where wolf blitzer has to sit every day. >> in the short term the president has more leverage right now because if they do nothing, let's say they avoid any legislation between now and the end of the year, starting january 1st we go over that so-called fiscal cliff, tax rates go up not just for the rich but for the middle class, for everyone, all those cuts in domestic spending and naths security spending, they go into effect. people aren't going to be happy about that, and the president will be able to say, look, i begged them, i repeatedly said 98% of the american public, they wouldn't get a tax increase if we just took them out of the equation, let's pass legislation extending the bush tax cuts for everyone earning under $250,000 a year. they didn't do it. so, you know, he'll have some leverage on that in terms of the politics because politically, you